Ike Abonyi
17 May 2009
(Page 2 of 2)
"Now, compare that situation with the recent revelations from the Rural Electrification Agency alone and you will see the wisdom of Yar'Adua's approach that charity should begin at home. When you also consider the fact that Halliburton, Siemens and all those other scandal were at the federal level yet nobody was brought to book, you must understand where fighting corruption should really begin."
Adeniyi also said the disposition of Yar'Adua is that: "if you begin by beaming the searchlight on federal government, it will be easier for the EFCC to go to the states rather than adopt the approach where governors were targeted, and selectively too, while officials of the federal government could sit atop monumental corruption without any questions asked of them.
"It is not that I am defending corruption at state level or making a case for former governors but I fail to accept that corrupt practices are restricted to state governors. That is not correct. In any case, the philosophy of Yar'Adua is that prevention is better than cure.
"For instance, it is so difficult now for officials to even try the kind of perfidy we saw at the Rural Electrification Agency with the e-Payment introduced with effect from January this year. Now, it is easy to follow the money trail. What triggered this whole investigation in the first place was movement of money in January after the transaction was concluded on December 30 last year.
" Yar'Adua doesn't believe corruption should be glamorised, he believes in fighting it. I think it is a matter of style because EFCC knows that they cannot publicly denounce anybody who has allegations of corruption against him or her. It is the court that can do that so their job is to look for watertight evidence that can ensure conviction rather than criminalise people on the pages of newspaper", he said.
He explained that President Yar Adua's continuous charge to the EFCC and other agencies is that they should do their work like normal routine exercise and he doesn't want to take credit for what they are doing. 'The beauty of his style is that nobody can ever accuse him of political persecution if he falls foul of the law and is apprehended. It will then be the law versus the individual concerned. That is the way it should be", Adeniyi said.
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